OF RACISM" U.S.A. View of Native Bishops

The appointment of two African bishops by the Pope was described at a congress of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith in New York as " a factual condemnation of the modern pernicious doctrine of racism."
The speaker was the Rev. Aloysius F. Coogan, national secretary of the Missionary Union of the Clergy. He was addressing the annual convention of diocesan directors of the S.P.F., 100 of whom were present.
The new bishops-elect are Mgr. Joseph Kiawanuka, of Masaka, Uganda, and Mgr. Ignace Raniarosandratana, Miaranarivo, Madagascar. Mgr. Thomas J. McDonnell, national director of the S.P.F., stated that they will be consecrated by the Pope in Rome, probably on October 16 or at least before Mission Sunday, October 22.
" We know that the Church was instituted for the salvation of mankind regardless of race, colour or clime," said Mgr. McDonnell.
Native Hierarchy
" The Church is ever becoming more conscious of the fact that her work will only become effective when she is established on a permanent basis in each country with her own native clergy ruled by a native hierarchy. " The present Holy Father is following the example of his predecessor by personally consecrating native bishops for areas in which the population is not of the white race. The late Pope Pius XI was the first to consecrate a non-white bishop when he elevated the first six Chinese bishops to the episcopacy."
Not the Privilege of a Group
The theory of so-called white supremacy was similarly condetnned by the Rev. Joseph M. Lynch, secretary of the Society of St. Peter the Apostle for Native Clergy. Christianity, said Fr. Lynch, was not the privilege of a particular group. It had destroyed national prejudices and overcome petty personal interests to reach all men in all places. In response to an appeal from Fr. Lynch, the diocesan directors voted to raise 50.000 dollars (110,000) as the American quota towards the erection of the 13igard Memorial Seminary at Onitsha, Nigeria, the first regional Church seminary in Africa.—B.U.P.